


Token

by szarabasjka



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Gen, meme fill
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-13
Updated: 2017-04-13
Packaged: 2018-10-18 07:53:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,014
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10612518
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/szarabasjka/pseuds/szarabasjka
Summary: Fill to thispromptThe boys find something in the bunker that is like the boogeyman for angels. Cas is a BAMF but still gets the fright of his life. He can't relax even knowing that it's locked up. But he isn't about to admit that. Fortunately Dean or Sam or both can read him like a book and either sit up with him or share a bed with him so he feels safe enough to sleep. Cuddles either way please.





	

***  
Dean was walking back from the garage, singing along with a holla lotta love when the thumping made him turn.  
He was in his cut off short shorts –to piss/scare/traumatize Sammy- and had not one weapon with him so he ran back to his room and changed in a second, took his Glock, his sawed off and an angel blade and ran back down.  
Sam heard the hasty footsteps and left his book and moved down the hall calling out for his brother. “Dean?” he didn’t heard a reply so he followed him.  
***  
Castiel was sitting in his room, he has one now; it’s just like every other room in the bunker but it’s his, with his bed and his bathroom, and is the first time he’s ever had something HIS. The laptop he’s using is Dean’s; so is the show he’s watching, Into The Badlands happens to be awesome. He understands Sunny’s inner battle between obeying his master or doing what is right, the weight of decisions too heavy for him who couldn’t see the bigger picture.  
The sound came from deep into the ground, as if the very foundation of the bunker had been hit by a pneumatic hammer. It frozen his blood the second it sounded, it couldn’t be there.  
***  
Jared followed Dean calling his name again; as he walked into the garage… except he turned right where he should go straight. “Dean?”  
Dean made a movement with his hand. Using the *strange path* sign and then the *recon mission* sign. Sam nodded as he took his own gun from the back of his jeans after patting his side to be sure he had Ruby’s knife.  
With a hand up and one movement of his wrist Dean ordered his brother to move forward and they marched into the unknown door.  
As they passed the door the lights flickered on and six cages made of thick glass appeared into view; they were surrounded by forged Iron cages, and surrounding the iron circles with sigils were painted in black and gold, -like real gold- Dean put his gun down and moved forward amazed by the handy work, he didn’t know one of those signs painted on the circle.  
“What’s this room?” Sam asked looking from one to the other cage as Dean walked to the only desk there, near a shelf filled with small bottles.  
Dean looked at his brother from his place near the empty cages and scoffed. “DO I look like a freaking tour guide to you Sammy?” and making fun of him. “At your right… the dungeon, to the left the empty room we have never seen before…” he turned and the once empty space was filled with a creature that looked like a cat.  
Dean jumped back scared, knocking down some stuff from the only table in the room. “Jesus Christ!” he let out as his eyes focused on the man/creature… thing! It looked like a man, except it hand claws in his fingers instead of regular nails and it’s head was feline… like a cat’s head, black and shiny, as a Egyptian cat of some kind. The thing moved its whiskers and mewled softly. Dean made a face of disgust and surprise and turned holding a book from the table before facing the thing again. “eugh…” he said as the creature blinked at him and started licking the paw/hand he was using to thump on the glass; he had the good idea to put the book on his clothes for later.  
“What the fuck!!” Shouted Sam startled when both boys jumped back. “I thought it was empty!!” he moved closer to his brother looking at the thing inside the cage, it looked like a giant crab; hitting the thick glass walls that were inside another cage made out of forged iron with his giant right pincer. “What’s this?”  
***  
It started like a soft innocent whistle, it could be the kettle, Sam and his fixation with tea… or maybe Dean or maybe…  
But the whistle changed to the sound of a horn, not a regular one, a horn Cas only heard once when he was just a fledling. A thing so scary he felt his skin crawl.  
Then he heard Dean calling for Jesus and Sam calling for his brother. He got up in a flash and checked his angel blade while the flapping sound of wings sounded as he disappeared.  
***

Sam moved closer to Dean unable to stop looking at the crab man, the pincer hitting the wall was rhythmic and made him think of dripping blood, a body getting cold as the spark of like contained in the crimson liquid left it, and it became two, and three and thousands, and Sam felt fear. “Dee…” he said in a whisper as he recoiled towards the desk; his mind traveled at his year soulless, every innocent he killed, every time he didn’t care for others, and how even after he had his soul back it didn’t felt right, as if the sensation of freedom he felt before was better.

“Sammy?” Dean kept looking at the hypnotic amber of the cat looking man’s eyes. In the reflex of those pupils he saw death, his mom, his dad, his brother, Bobby, Cas, Ellen and Jo, Bela, Rufus, Benny, Kevin, his daughter, the Steins, that little kid, and every single soul he took while he carried the mark of Cain. “Stop it!!” he shouted and the cat man smiled at him whiffing deeply as if the smell of fear was what fed him. “Sam, get out!!” Dean turned to find Sam against the desk hiding his face in his hands sobbing uncontrollably. “Sam!!”

“He knows… al the blood you have in your hands… unchain me Man of letters and I’ll ease your pain… I could use someone like you, carrier of the mark of darkness, you could lead one of my 66 legions… or all of them…” the cat man said with one movement of his velvety ears. “Just break the seal…” Dean resisted but Sam was moving to the edge of the circle telling that he’ll do it for the guilt to stop

“Sammy, No” he tried to move but it ignited pain, as if he was in the rack again. He felt the pain, the cold and despair, he felt Alastair again.

“You know of that place… you’ve seen my kingdom!!” the thing said with a movement of his long whiskers as amber moved over Sam. “I’ll spare him… ” And turning to Dean again added: “unleash me.”  
***

“Let them go…!” Castiel was standing by the door; he only had to follow the horn of Bäel to find the Winchesters as they had found him.

“An angel of the Lord!! An actual seraph!!” said the demon smiling with his beautiful face. “Look at you little thing… so bright even if broken.” Castiel stuttered in his movements as he got in front of Sam and Dean, the light of his grace illuminating the room, dark shadow wings, little less a mess than before covering both the hunters. 

“Sam, Dean…” Castiel moved a hand, the one not holding his blade behind his back to push one of them towards the door, Dean felt the hand on his side and blinked as if coming out of a dream, and he searched for his baby brother and pushed him out of the room.  
***

The door closed the same way it opened without anyone wanting it or trying it, and the visions of pain and guilt disappeared. “What was that?” Dean let out

Castiel wasn’t facing them, his wings were visible and Sam looked at Dean surprised. “Cas?” Sam tried. “you okay?”

The angel was sitting on the floor exactly in front of the door but with his back towards to it. “Cas?” Sam tried but the angel only got up mumbled an apology and letting out a loud breath disappeared into the bunker.  
***

“Okay… correct me if I’m wrong but that was weird even for men of letter’s bunker of weirdness standards, right?” Dean faced his brother then the door and then the hallway where Castiel disappeared. Sam let out a sigh, a snort half laughter half relief as he smiled.

“What was that?” he said getting closer to the closed door, it was painted with something, it was white and grainy in strange paterns. “he knew about the cage…”

Dean looked at his brother worried. “Lucifer’s cage?” Sam nodded and Dean bit his lips before confesing too. “it knew about hell, and purgatory… and the mark and Darkness… everything.”

Sam frowned too. “What is that thing…?” He said touching the arks on the door. “What kind of creature read minds, and looks like a crab…” 

“Like a cat… it looked like a human cat for me…” Sam and Dean looked at each other as they heard somewhere in the bunker a door slammed shut. 

“What happened to Cas?” wondered dean turning once more towards the hallway. “think is the first time I saw his wings after he needed them.”

Out of nowhere they were startled by the thumping of the creature hitting his cage once more, like the sound that pulled them there. Dean and Sam had their weapons drawn and felt stupid standing outside of the door…

Dean licked his lips as he put the gun down. “we need to know what the heck is that thing.”

“crab and cat…” Sam pondered as he noticed the piece of paper he was holding something he took the table, it was a index card, from the Men of Letters library; it had faded letters and stains of the same grainy stuff. “you think is some kind of shifter? That changes faces? Maybe fears?”

“Are you afraid of crabs Samuel? Because I know damn well I do not fear cats? ” Sam did his best not to make a snarky remark about ghost sickness.

“Allergies.” Dean added with a face and a shrug.

“I…” Sam waved the index card. “I’ll go check the library, do some research…”Sam touched the door too. This looks like.

“It’s salt…” Dean told him. “Not sure what kind thought.” Dean was smelling his fingers. “there was a book” he said taking it out of the back of his pants “something about how to lock the cage for a million years.”He looked once more the way Castiel disappeared. “I’ll go check on Cas, he seemed really off.”

“Sure!!” Sam said as Dean threw him a killer look, he was done with the jokes about his worry on the angel.  
***

“Cas?” Dean opened the thinking he’d find Castiel watching Netflix or something. 

He never thought he’d pass the door to find the room clouded in dark with the black wings; it filled the entire place. “Cas!” Dean got close and when he tried to touch his friend the angel gasped and turned to him still pale and disheveled. 

“Dean!!!” he said surprised as he hid his large teary eyes.

“What happen?” Cas let out a shuddering breath and bit his lips, Dean Winchester moved ahead without thinking holding Castiel in his arms. “Hey.. hey!! Calm down…” he hugged his angel, his other brother tight; Sammy knew he’d always have Dean no matter what, but what about Cas?

“Calm down, okay? Tell me what happened.”

“I’m scared.” The angel Confessed as he held on Dean’s solid frame. “I had no idea you had him here.” He tried to pull away. “I can’t be here, not with that thing…”

Dean moved to hold a frantic Castiel before he could vanish. “Wow… wow, wait… hold on, you are not going to leave, is that clear?” Castiel huffed frustrated. “you’ll stay here with your family, are we clear?”

“Dean, you have no idea…” and the tears rolled down his face. “I can’t… I’m-I’m too afraid…”

“Reason enough to stick with your favorite hunters… we’ll protect you.” He said with a confidence he didn’t really felt.

But the angel kept in panic. “There’s no way to be protected from destruction and the entire power of hell.”

“We’ll try; Hey…” Castiel finally meet his eyes. “deep breaths Cas, you have to be here with us, with me, okay?” Castiel nodded.

“I’m sorry, are you all right? He was controlling you and Sam, are you okay?”

Dean pulled a cocky grin and a shrug. “We’ve dealt with worse.” finally getting closer dean held his arms and asked. “What about you buddy?”

Castiel nodded. “I’ll face this… it is too dangerous to leave it with you two alone.” He hesitated before adding. “I just can’t… could you…” he didn’t know how to ask for comfort; his eyes traveling over and over to the door. 

“I won’t leave your side…” Dean moved away startling the angel; but he only got to the bed and kicking off his boots got in one side of it. “I know you don’t really sleep… but you need to rest your vessel for a while Cas, come on.” He made a motion with his head as Castiel got in bed with him, Dean caressed his hair as if he were a kid, a being thousands of years old allowing himself to be petted like a child. It was undignified, but the soothing warm hand caused his eyes to get heavy and he fell asleep before he noticed it.

Dean was woken by Castiel once more in full panic at the thumping from the cage and the voice of the creature. “I’m hungry little seraph, and you’ll make an especially tasty snack with all that human experience and your love for this two vermin.” Dean moved and held Castiel as he tried to leave the room. “I bet, all those cracks on your grace, little broken thing… all those cracks make you especially crunchy.” Castiel sobbed.

“We’re safe here, he’s trapped and Sam is looking for a way to lock the room once again” Dean said while holding a terrified angel on his arms. “It’s okay, I’m here, I won’t leave you.” 

Castiel felt as Dean wrapped himself around the angel, as if protecting a child. “What if…”

“He won’t leave the cage, I promise… and if he does, we’ll get him away from you. You’re my brother… I won’t let you get hurt.”

Sam came to check on them a little later and only smirked to Dean, Castiel never left his side.

It was the next morning that Castiel looked at Dean sitting in the edge of the bed waiting for him.

“I’ll tell you something” He said with a soft warm smile. “When I was six almost seven I was left alone with Sam for the first time.” And with a longing look at his hands. “I don’t really remember a lot, but…” and offered Castiel a wristband, it had small skulls around in white beads while the rest were tanned. “This is a holy bones amulet, from Giza; it’s supposed to protect you and let you finish your task. It had helped me for all this years, and I want youto have it for now…”

It was a trick, a trick he worked with Sam when he was young. “I’m an angel of the lord… and I don’t see how these bones are holy.”

“There’s more than just one religion, brother, come on…” and motioned for Cas to hold his hand out. “If you don’t believe it’ll help, think of this as a reminder that no matter what, I’ll protect you always, no matter what, I’ll always come back for you, okay?”

Castiel smiled as his gaze lingered in the object, so mundane yet so meaningful. “Okay.”

“Awesome, now let’s eat something.”  
***

“I found it; it’s the demon Bäel, head of the powers from Hell, first King of Hell and leader of the 66 legions. That’s why he showed us two of three faces.” Sam said the next morning as Castiel and Dean left the angel’s room to have breakfast. “We only saw two, so I’m not… quite sure, but if we get to see the third…”

“I saw the third face; he showed me the real face, the demon’s face.” Castiel said. “I knew of him at the beginning, even before I joined my garrison, when I was very young. Bäel would have reigned hell if Lucifer weren’t an archangel. ” Castiel held the string on his wrist and Sam’s eyes traveled to it, remembering, a smile tugging at his lips, thinking on how many times dean offered the amulet to him, as a token, a palpable proof that he had your back, one day his brother would be an amazing father.

But the pressing matter now was far more somber. Castiel kept talking about the demon that scared him. “Meeting Bäel was secure destruction, He killed millions of angels, more than the father could create… and ate their grace, Michael fought him and saved few garrisons, that until Lucifer was vanished…” Castiel shuddered. “facing him was secure death…”

“That sounds horrible.”

“It was a story, among angels, my brothers used to scare new ones with, telling us about the horrors and the pain he inflicted on his victims.” Dean moved closer and put a hand on Castiel’s left shoulder. 

“You’ll be fine. He won’t leave that cage.”

Castiel’s eyes were still glued to the floor. “I’m afraid, I grew up fearing him, and I even had nightmares about him while I was almost human…”

“Oh Cas…” Sam got close and hugged him without more ado. “You’re safe, he’s still trapped. And we’ll keep him there.”

Castiel smiled softly finally understanding that the support and protection offered by Dean extended to Sam.  
***

The thumping started again, even if it was almost midnight. Sam was still looking for something without even telling Dean or Cas what it was. “it’s useless, I can’t find it!!” he sat in front of Dean’s table where he was cleaning guns with Castiel standing right behind his chair, he’d seen them like that all day long, Dean cooked, Cas passed him the spices, Dean did laundry, Cas was sitting there, head tilted right. “I don’t understand why you need silk underwear…”

Dean went out and Cas stood by the garage door avoiding the door to Bäel’s cage.

“He’ll come back.” Sam had offered and Castiel tagged along with him then, for a little while, at some point Castiel perked up and moved without saying anything, 

Now he faced defeat in front of the still scared angel. “the men of letters only had few things, a couple pages, mostly about a guy around 1917 that tried to summon him here after he flew Russia after the revolution, apparently he was an adviser of the Tsar.” Dean made a face.

“Wait a sec… wasn’t Grigory Yefimovich Novykh the adviser of the last Tsar?” Both Cas and Sam looked at Dean in the face. “Rasputin!” he added with a little eye roll. “What? I read…”

Sam smiled. “Anyways… the men of Letters stopped him and sent him back so the revolution could take care of him…” and frowning, “There’s not much after that, except that apparently this place has a book that explains more about him that the Grimoire, but the place in the shelf is empty… ”

Dean had that one look, the one he always has when he did something wrong. “Do you have any idea of how it looks like?”

Yeah, that was the book.  
***

“Here it is!” Sam crowed. “The seal of Bäel can lock him up for a million years if done properly, apparently it can seal him for a million years… if that’s possible, the Men of Letters used the salt of the dead sea, but for it to be unbreakable needs the salt of the tears of a broken angel…”

Dean huffed. “Get’s better, the broken angel that reads his half… whatever that means.” Both Winchesters frowned.  
Dean asked. “I feel like I sad this a lot this last couple of days but is that even possible?”

Castiel was looking to a side. “Is not as rare as it used to be, most angels are a little broken after the fall… ” and considering his words. “I’m the best example of broken.”

“You don’t have to.” Sam answered in a hurry before Castiel could even offer. 

“it’ll seal the cage for a million years…” Castiel repeated.

“seriously buddy, you don’t have to.” Confirmed Dean.

“It’ll seal the cage…” Cas repeated. “For a million years, for a million years no other angel will hear the grace of our brothers crying out in pain from inside him.” He pondered. “I’ll do it.” Sam and dean shared a look of worry as the angel stood. “I’ll do it…”

The rest of the ingredients weren’t hard. The hard ones the tears of an angel: a strand of the holy shroud.

“So… we need.” Sam had a list of eighteen things. ”one eye of each side of heave’s mirror”

Dean groaned as they waited for Castiel with the strand. “I’ll be damned.” He was already dialing on his phone. “We need a demon.”  
And the call connected.

“Hello Dean…” Crowley’s voice filled the room making Sam feel unease. “long time without catching up… since the whole… Amara debacle…”

“Yeah… ” Dean said and faced his brother, Sam snorted. 

“I hear moose is there too, Hello moose!” Sam grinted as all responce. “is this a social call or it’s pure business?”

“you can say… both.” Dean said. “we have someone that could steal your throne.”

“Bäel..?” Crowley let out more serious than intended. “e all heard his horn, not the most discrete way to call for support.”

“Yeah… creepy bastard… we want to lock him up for the foreseeable future, but we need your help.”

Crowley chuckled. “I could have him as an ally, why would I help his confinement?”

“Because he said he’ll rule over his kind once more, and only archangels teamed up against him could defeat him the first time around, and we’re talking from before humans were created.” Sam said.

“What part makes you think you’re safe?” Dean added with a smile.

“Okay, I’ll play with you, but you need more things, right? the Holy Shroud maybe?”

“Cas went to Turin to get a strand…” Sam let out smug.

“aww cute, moosey, but the real Hly shroud is in my possession, it’s part of my private collection since a certain little girl wanted to be Pope…”

Castiel appeared with the flapping of wings. “Dean there’s a problem, the shroud of Turin is fake.”

Crowley laughed on the phone. “I’ll bring the strand, we call this a truce? You don’t try to kill me; I won’t try to take your souls…?”  
***

Crowley couldn’t even face the thing, apparently he could only see the form of the demon, and was so disgusting it made him scared, but he held his side of the bargain and read his part of the chant.

Fire and thunder, a rumble under the earth shook the entire county but the new sigil was set, the second the light faded, the door started shrinking and Dean and Sam pulled angel and demon out before it disappeared leaving only a small, like two square inches sized dent on the wall. “We have to make sure to leave info about this…” Sam let out as a reminder of himself.  
***

Castiel stood inside of Dean’s room often for a while, He shared his bed every other night even if he never accepted he was scared, and Castiel tagged along when the boys left the bunker for a case. It took him a while to once more feel at ease so close to a demon’s cage. 

Dean and Sam helped him as much as they could, never mentioned he was acting still like a scared child.   
It took months for Castiel to finally sit in front of dean and give him back his wristband with a honest thank you and a smile.

“Don’t mention it!” Dean said with a side smile. “That’s what family is for.”  
The End


End file.
